


the end of the road

by Astral_Bees



Category: Supernatural
Genre: And I wanted to, Bisexual Dean Winchester, DeanCas - Freeform, Destiel - Freeform, Fix-It, Gay Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, Oneshot, also, and it's my fic, and not mentioned in this fic, bc i couldn't remember the other one, bc i love them, but claire and kaia are totally dating, eileen is also here, fuck spn, i didn't check this over for spelling mistakes so i apologize for any that are there, i gave the dog a new name, i'm a clown, jack also visits them bc he has god's powers now and i don't know why he wouldn't, she's just not in much of it :(, sorry - Freeform, this is just a rewrite of the ending of the finale, what the fuck was that ending??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:08:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27651817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astral_Bees/pseuds/Astral_Bees
Summary: dean is dying
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	the end of the road

**Author's Note:**

> i always told myself i would never write any fics for spn,, but i am wearing my clown wig and a big red nose bc here we are. i just couldn't leave it the way they ended it,, have fun commiserating with me :)

As Dean stood there, dying, all he could think of was the family he’d made for himself. All he could think of was how that family had died before he did and soon it would just be Sam. Little Sammy. All on his own. The thought hurt more than whatever was killing him.

Cas was gone. And Jack was god. And Same would be alone. And Dean… Dean would be dead.

There was some small relief in knowing he wouldn’t have to fight anymore. He could finally rest. It was the ending he’d always seen coming, even if he’d never wanted to believe it. It was the ending he’d always deserved. Death. The final frontier for every hunter. For every person. But knowing that didn’t lessen the pain. And it didn’t make it any easier to leave.

For a moment he thought of Cas waiting for him in heaven. It was a nice idea. But it was a lie. Just a pretty lie to make the whole situation slightly more bearable. Because Cas wasn’t in heaven. And Dean had no clue where he would end up. Did he deserve to go to heaven? After everything, did he deserve that?

Too much of him was convinced he didn’t.

“Dean? Dean, are you still with me?” Sam’s voice broke through the haze and Dean opened his eyes to take in his little brother’s face one more time. He was getting weaker by the second. He could tell. But he didn’t want Sam to worry. He couldn’t make it so Sam wouldn’t worry. Because there he was. Dying.

“Yeah, Sammy. I’m still here.” He smiled a crooked smile and sucked in a shuddering breath.

Sam pulled away just slightly and Dean tried to tighten his grip on his brother, but he couldn’t. Slipping away from him, Sam gave a small sad smile that was supposed to be reassuring. It wasn’t. “I can’t let this happen to you. I’ll… I’ll be right back.”

And before Dean could stop him. Before Dean could say anything to make him turn back around. Sam was gone. And Dean was alone, stuck in one spot.

He let his eyes flutter shut, breathing in and out as gently as he could. But every breath felt like death and took about as much effort as lifting a weight. The weight of life pressed down on his shoulders. He was sinking further into the abyss. All of the noise around him so normal in the face of what was happening. Bugs flying around and wind whistling through trees. The world would carry on with or without Dean Winchester. And he wasn’t upset. That had been the point of fighting. Being able to leave behind a world that would survive.

Taking one last look around his final resting place, Dean smiled. He would die. And Sam would be alone. But he wouldn’t be alone forever. He knew his brother better than that.  
The room started to darken around him, and Dean figured it was really his time. He’d died before. It was nothing new. Just once more unto the breach. But when his mind came back to him, refocusing on the world around him, Dean saw that it wasn’t his vision that was darkening. It was the actual room. All of the lights began to burst, creating an inky blackness and he didn’t understand what was happening.

Being alone seemed suddenly dangerous, but Dean tried to remind himself that it didn’t matter if something else killed him. It was the same outcome either way.

A figure appeared, silhouetted by a singular light that still shone in the dark. Squinting to make out the person, Dean tried to lean forward. But that was only pain. Only added pain. He stopped, labored breathing the only sound in the barn. The person stood, still, and Dean just wanted to know who it was. He wanted to understand who was going to do him in before the screw could.

Trying once more to see who it was, Dean’s eyes began to adjust to the lack of light. And there he was. The one person Dean hadn’t been expecting.

His heart shot up into his throat and Dean forced it back down. The tears that had filled his eyes when Sam was still with him returned, threatening to spill over. Taking a shuddering breath, Dean realized what was happening. What he was actually seeing.

“Oh, great. Now I’m hallucinating,” Dean groaned as he struggled to breathe, shifting his eyes off of Cas’ face. He didn’t need the reminder of what he’d lost. Of what he’d never be able to get back. Because Dean would die and go… somewhere. And Cas was already in the empty.

“Dean,” phantom Cas started. He sounded so much like the real Cas. His mind had really perfected him. Created a version of his angel to ease him into death. “You’re not hallucinating.”

“Yeah, Cas, I think I am.” There was no way he was going to listen to the lie his mind was telling him. No matter how badly he wanted to believe it. How he wanted to take his hand. Or sit with him and just talk. Wanted for him to actually be there. But that wasn’t how things went. That had never been how things went. Because when it came to Dean, nothing good ever lasted very long.

Phantom Cas sighed and moved closer and even when Dean could see him better, he still looked so real. Everything about him was right. Even his stupid little tie.

Dean’s head dipped, consciousness becoming too heavy a burden to bear for much longer. But phantom Cas was already at his side. Carefully sliding him off of the screw, phantom Cas helped Dean stand despite the hole in his back.

Without wasting any time, Cas got to work healing Dean’s wound. And as the wound faded and Dean’s consciousness returned to him, he realized that Cas wasn’t disappearing. In fact, Cas was only becoming clearer. A real person. The tears that had come and gone before, returned again. Dean backed away from Cas, finally able to support himself after being stuck for what had felt like an eternity.

“Cas?”

A small smile played on his lips and he nodded in response.

And even though Dean could think of a million little things to say to Cas, only one of them seemed to matter. He didn’t care about the how or what exactly had happened. Didn’t even care that he had been dying mere moments before. Because Cas was there.

Pulling Cas to him, Dean wrapped him in a hug, clapping him on the back. “I thought you were gone. And I didn’t…” He paused as he felt Cas’ arms slip around him, cutting himself off. And when he started up again, he said the one thing he needed to say. Which was the one thing he hadn’t been able to say. “I love you, Cas.”

“I know. We’re family.”

Putting a bit of space between them, Dean looked at Cas with a slight frown. “No, not like that. I love you. The way you love me.”

Cas’ face opened up, reflecting unguarded confusion and hope. The meaning of Dean’s words washed over him, and he blinked, slowly breathing in the clarity. “Oh.”

“Oh? I tell you I love you and you say oh?” Dean remarked, grinning.

“Well, to be fair, when I said it you didn’t say anything.” Cas threw back.

Barking out a laugh, Dean erased the space that had grown between them again. Placing his hands on either side of Cas’ face, he looked into his eyes for a brief second before kissing him. And it wasn’t until he was in the action that he realized just how long he’d been waiting to do it. How long he’d been waiting to kiss Castiel. It was like he’d never been dying. It was like he never could. With Cas everything felt infinite.

They pulled away from each other and Dean smiled at Cas. He was still there.

“That was a better response than the silence,” Cas said, smiling back.

Rolling his eyes, Dean took Cas’ hand in his and started for the barn doors. As they walked, the doors opened, and Sam stood in the opening. His eyes widened as he looked between Cas and Dean. And once he was done processing what he was seeing, he lunged forward and trapped the both of them in a tight hug.

“Oh, thank god…” he sighed as he held onto them.

The three of them stayed like that for a long moment, Sam keeping them trapped in his hug.

After they had left the barn and dropped the two boys off, Sam, Dean, and Cas stopped at a local diner. Dean ordered something called ‘The Triple Meat Surprise’ while Sam got a simple salad. Cas didn’t get anything. He was just along for the ride.

Their food came and as Dean ate, Sam asked the questions that were on both of their minds. “So, Cas… uh, it’s great to have you back, man. But, how are you back?”

“Yeah, what happened to the empty?” Dean asked around a bite of his comically large burger.

Cas shifted in the booth, the fluorescents shining brightly over all of them. “Jack. Jack is how I’m back. I was in the empty for a bit, but after Chuck… He was able to get me out of there. I actually helped him with heaven before he sent me back down here.”

Sam nodded, a pensive look still on his face. But that was all the explanation Dean required. He looked at the two of them, smiling around his food. “Alright, cool that the kid could do all that.”

“How is Jack doing? Now that he’s taken over for Chuck?”

Cas shrugged slightly, smiling down at the table before meeting Sam’s eyes. “He seems excited. I think he’ll do a good job.”

Dean’s phone chimed from inside his pocket and he pulled it out to check who it was. Without sliding it open to read the full message, he handed it over to Sam. “It’s your wife.”

Frowning at Dean, Sam took the phone and read over the text. When he was done, he grabbed his own phone and tried to turn it on. It refused to come to life. “Eileen’s at the bunker. She was trying to get ahold of me, but…” He showed the black screen of his phone to the others again for emphasis. “Can you get the rest of that to go?”

“My burger?” Dean asked, not waiting for an answer. Because instead of waiting for a box, he shoved the last bite into his mouth even though it shouldn’t have been able to fit. Both Sam and Cas stared at him in mild disgust, before they all got up to go.

Piling into Baby, the three drove back to the bunker where Eileen was waiting. She waved to the car as they pulled up and Sam hopped out as soon as they stopped. He spoke with her as Dean and Cas remained sitting in the car. Glancing over at Cas, Dean couldn’t wipe the small smirk off his face. They were home. All of them. Well, not all of them. But still, some was better than none.

“What?” Cas asked when Dean had looked over at him for the third time without saying anything.

Dean opened his mouth to say something when Sam knocked on the driver’s side window, stopping him completely. Rolling down the window, Sam smiled and said, “Eileen are going to go out for a bit. Are you two ok on your own?”

“Sam, I’m not a toddler.”

“Yeah, ok,” Sam replied, clearly unconvinced by Dean’s words.

As Sam and Eileen drove off, Dean and Cas returned to the bunker. Their dog ran over to them as they walked through the door, surprising Cas with its sudden appearance.

“A dog?”

“Right! You haven’t met her, yet.” Dean grinned and knelt next to the dog. “Cas meet Kansas! Kansas, this is Cas.”

Still unsure of the dog in front of him, Cas didn’t know what to do. So, Dean took his hand gently in his own and held it in front of Kansas’ nose. She gave him a quick sniff, a light bark, and then her tail started up. It whipped back and forth, a propeller on the end of the dog. Tentatively, Cas removed his hand from Dean’s grip and pet her lightly on the head. Kansas nudged his hand with her nose to get more attention and he obliged.

Dean ruffled the fur on the sides of her body and stood, walking over to the record player in the corner of the room. He slipped a vinyl on, returning to Cas once the music had started up.

Offering a hand to him, Cas looked up from where he was still petting Kansas.

“C’mon, Cas! Grant a dying man one last dance!” his smile was stupid and bright and lovely.

“You’re not dying.”

“I know that. You know that. Doesn’t change the fact that we should dance.”

Cas took his hand, standing up, and the two of them swayed from side to side. The song and Kansas’ intermittent barks were the only sounds that could be heard in the bunker. 

And it was perfect.

They held onto each other until the song had finished, and even then, they stayed a little longer. Just a man and his angel swaying to their silent love.

Days passed and the hunter lifestyle faded into their rearview. They didn’t need it anymore. They could help when they were needed, and they could provide information when they weren’t. But really it was Sam and Dean and Cas and Eileen. And Kansas. The family they had spent so long searching for.

A couple of months after they got Cas back, Dean got a phone call.

“What’s up?”

“I’m having trouble with a few werewolves up here. I was hoping you and Sam could help me out?” Charlie’s voice sounded a little hesitant on the other side of the line.

“Did you try Jody and the girls?” he didn’t want to push the case off, but he wanted to check.

“Yeah, Claire and Kaia are out on another hunt already. And it sounds like Jody has her hands full.”

He nodded even though Charlie couldn’t see him, and he felt Cas rest a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll be there. How many wolves you got?”

“Three, last time I checked.”

“Ok, we’re on our way.”

“Thanks, Dean.”

“Anything for family.” He said before hanging up. Turning to the others, he smiled brazenly. “Who’s up for one more hunt?”

Dean climbed into the driver’s seat of Baby with Cas in the passenger’s seat. Sam and Eileen sitting together in the back. He looked at his three passengers and backed up. Pulling away from the bunker, Dean set them on a long stretch of the road. They drove through songs, days, and state lines, finally reaching Charlie and Stevie for what happened to be their last hunt.

The last of many. An end to their lives as hunters. But only the beginning for what they could still be.

Two uncles. A father. A mother.

And a number of extended family. None of whom had to be blood to matter. Because they were family. Every last one of them. And the Winchester brothers would never be alone again. They would always have someone who loved them. They would always have each other.

**Author's Note:**

> have a great day, fuck cw spn, and stay safe !! <3


End file.
